


A Hug

by flippyspoon



Series: Pour Some Sugar on Me [48]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-06-02 11:49:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19440877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flippyspoon/pseuds/flippyspoon
Summary: Post-monster Billy





	A Hug

“I don’t need to sleep,” Billy snapped.

Steve had assumed that must be true since it was nearly three in the morning and though they had both been up for about thirty-six hours, most of which Billy had spent encased inside a giant exoskeleton and nearly out of his mind, he was still dressed as he sat on the edge of Steve’s bed, smoking and jogging his knee.

Steve nodded and trilled his lips. He peeled off his shirt and kicked off shoes but more effort than that seemed impossible. Still, it didn’t feel right to go to sleep if Billy was still up (not after everything that had happened) so, exhausted as he was, he plopped on the bed next to Billy, half leaning against him.

“Think we should’ve taken you to a hospital,” Steve muttered, grabbing for Billy’s cigarette and taking a drag. “But they might make you go anyway…”

“Shit,” Billy muttered. “They’re gonna turn me into goddamn E.T.”

“What was it like?” Steve asked softly.

“It was…” He shut his eyes and Steve watched his mouth collapse. “I…can’t…”

“It’s okay,” Steve murmured. “You don’t have to…”

“It wanted me to do all this shit,” Billy muttered. “And it kept showing it to me. And then I thought it was real.”

“Like hallucinations?”

“Yeah?”

“Bad ones?”

Billy looked at him and Steve had never seen him look so open and yet so haunted. “I can’t even tell you, man. Shit, I just…” He rubbed his eyes. “I need…shit, nevermind.”

Steve looked at him and it reminded him of time when he was with Nancy and feeling sad. Nancy, during the very best times of their relationship, had always known when he needed to be held. Which, he supposed, girl just had to somehow know because guys were unlikely to ask for it.

Billy looked like that now and he wasn’t likely to ask…

There was no universe where Steve could envision Billy admitting he needed a hug.

But now he squinted and tried to imagine Billy peering at him over his cigarette with his glittery eyes and saying in his throaty voice, “I need a hug.”

“It’s okay,” Steve said then. “I know what you need.”

“Oh, do you, Harrington?”

“Mm.” He scooted closer and folded Billy in his arms and felt him relax into the embrace, and his arms came around Steve’s bare back and rested there. They both smelled, not bad so much as weird like something alien and chemical, though know when Steve burrowed his head into Billy’s neck as he held him tight, he smelled Billy as he usually was; Aqua Net, cigarettes, Artemis cologne…

“I can be here,” Steve said to him. “If you see stuff like that again. I’ll be right here.”

Steve heard Billy make a little choking sound and then he said, “Yeah, alright.”

And Steve held Billy for a long, long time.


End file.
